avid.001

After the long break away from AVID, I felt rather unfamiliar with the software. Surprisingly, as soon as we all got our workspaces and passwords, it all started coming back naturally. 

On the very first day, I looked through the 'Meat Bag' footage, sorted it into bins, made a basic rough cut and left it at that. I felt very conflicted about the footage as there were large jumps in the flow of the story and it made me feel anxious when viewing it. I thought, if I have to edit together a film and I'm already feeling stressed just reviewing the rough cut, I won't be able to make it to my usual standard, or enjoy the process. 

I left it at that and the following week, after a chat with Kathryn, I decided to import the footage from 'Basement' (which I re-titled Rouge) and start from scratch. Perhaps due to the fact I hadn't seen this footage before, I felt excited and intrigued, and within one day I had made a rough cut, a second rough cut and a diegetic soundtrack. 

Following that, I saw that the weather forecast was suggesting there might be snow, so I went decided to spend my free Thursday afternoon editing until the closing time at 8pm. By this time, I had a cut I was pleased with, audio was 90% synced and I was able to do some colour retouching. 

As predicted, campus was shut on Friday due to snowfall.

The week after that, I made use of the AVID rooms after 4pm which was when the MAs left.

I added a crop because I felt it gave a more TV-like feeling, and I thought it would be interesting to add sound to the TV. I used that of an old, short trailer and it matched perfectly with the feel I was going for. During the edit, I decided I wanted it to imply that the lives of the characters were also almost TV-like. I also got some ambient and atmospheric soundtracks, to increase the feeling of suspense and oddness, with some strange noises increasing when the Boyfriend enters the basement. 

Most of my time was spent keyframing audio and retouching the highlights (as in some shots the settings looked completely different!) so that on its own took about a day and a half. Other than that, I found it very easy to keep everything tidy within each Bin, all the AVID tools felt easy and understandable to use by the end of the editing process, and I handed in my final edit on February 7th.

Here's what that almost Final Cut looked like, with all the keyframes, titles, audio, cuts and the coloured overlay at the end to make it look like a light-leak (although the implied message was it starts again!)

vfx.001

I've become so used to Illustrator that I no longer remember how different After Effects is, as you can probably tell by the text I used to experiment today...

 Anyhow, I spent today just familiarising myself with all the bits and bobs again, and made this little title sequence using Motion Blur, Wave Warp, Colour Keyframes & a quick Wiggle through Motion Tile.

I really want to make use of either Super Retro M54 or Benguiat fonts as pictured below.

Other than that, I'm not too sure of what I want to do quite yet - but I did find the Title Sequence below to be really interesting.

studio shoot evaluation

Final Evaluation

previous posts here x and here x

As a follow-up to my Production Designer and First Evaluation posts, I decided to write up a new, final Evaluation as I feel like I can now look back and be more reflective about the time leading up to the shoot. The other two posts are more specific to researching my role and the way pre-production went, whilst this is more of an overlook. My role was very much pre-production based, working with the Producer and DOP to create the set, gather props and get everything ready so that the Camera Team could get to work without any issues. 

Our group had a very slow start in October, due to the fact we had issues meeting up at one certain time. Because of this we went back and forth with our ideas for a while, and at one point the Art Department and the Director came together to brainstorm and create a presentation that would portray our idea because there was still too much uncertainty. I made an Art Direction powerpoint, Anike wrote a quick script draft and Emily helped gather our ideas together. I think this was an issue because nobody wanted to step up as ‘the leader’, therefore there wasn’t anyone making the final decision, hence why Emily, Anike and I temporarily stepped up to clear it up. 

From early on I knew our DOP Lois and Director Emily wanted an eerie, dark atmosphere, so I looked into films by David Lynch, such as Blue Velvet and Rabbits, as well as found that Babadook (by Jennifer Kent), Hannibal (by David Slade) and 10 Cloverfield Lane (by Dan Trachtenberg) also had a similar odd look that we were interested in. I wrote these down as visual influences and started to work on a Set Design whilst communicating to our Producer, Director and DOP. There were some issues with getting the script finalised, so I had to start working on visuals before being able to read the actual script, hence why instead of envisioning the look from what I read, I had to come up with it by creating a thorough list of emotions we wanted to achieve. 

We wanted it to be dark, old and empty looking yet with colourful memories attached due to the presence of a child in pre-film timeline. I also suggested we use balloons instead of meat bags due to cutting down on the ‘gruesome’ and instead focusing on the ‘eerie and ambiguous’.  

After this the pre-production went quite quickly. Pip was wonderful within her role, and clearly assigned specific paperwork to everyone. I made a Studio Design sketch and a Budget list for furniture, smaller props and make-up, whilst also doing my best to source them for free so that we wouldn’t spend too much on anything. With Pip’s help, we decided to gather money from our group so we could purchase the props as neither of us could afford to spend it individually. This also went quite quickly, and soon Pip, myself, Brodie and Jen found ourselves in Homebase purchasing paint, rollers, other build-related necessities. The build itself was quite fun and we did it very quickly and without any major issues. Pip, Anike and I also purchased the wardrobe for the actors as Grace wasn’t around for most of the time, so possibly missed the fact we needed to get the costume muddy/slightly coloured as when she brought in her wardrobe the Friday before shoot, she told us we couldn’t make it dirty. 

At the same time, however, we needed to order helium because we were advised to have it on-set so we would be able to inflate the balloons if anything went wrong. The balloons supplied by Emily turned out to be too small when we inflated them, so we had to quickly order some bigger ones. This is where one of our main issues came from – the bigger balloons needed more helium, but when they came on Friday before the shoot, we thought the helium cannister would be enough to fill one up for the shoot. However, when I got there on Monday morning, the helium canister had been tampered with as half of the helium had escaped it, thereby not being enough to keep the balloon up. I quickly found the closest party shop, and with the help of Emily’s car, Pip, Emily and I were on our way to Aldershot. This pushed our filming schedule back by about an hour, although during the day we managed to catch up at one point. 

I felt very disappointed in myself as I still believe this is my fault, although I still don’t understand what could’ve happened to the helium as it had been properly closed as per instructions after the test balloon. 

Despite this setback, everything else went according to plan. I worked very closely with Pip and there weren’t any issues with getting the set up and dressing it as we successfully sourced everything we wanted. I enjoyed my role thoroughly as it was exactly what I wanted to do, and except for the accidental helium problem, everything went smoothly. Because my role was very much pre-production based, I was able to use the rest of the time to watch the camera team, actors and sound recording, so I feel like despite not participating in the actual shooting of the script, I learned more about the value of every role and importance of team work (because if one person doesn’t do what they say they will, everything crumbles like dominoes!) It was very valuable, as well as stressful, but it definitely taught me more about the skillset and mindset a person needs to make a shoot work from beginning till end!

chapter 4 - curation & final

Multiple weeks later, here we are. An open exhibition titled Milieu?, everyone's work displayed and our own re-touched and finalised.

As soon as the four of us got back from the break, I went out to reshoot some bits and bobs. I completely replaced the camera and poetry book shots, and exchanged the throw shot for a cushion. I'm happy I did as the camera shot proved to be some people's favourite.

Emily re-edited the footage to 20 seconds length which we felt was perfect, and once that was done I retouched the colours one more time before Kylan created the new soundscape. 

Then it was time to struggle with the exports, staying in sync etc. In the end we lost the fight due to the fact that the TV monitors each had a separate media speed, thereby going out of sync before the video had even finished playing, thereby no matter how many loops we would export, the monitor would still finish playback a milisecond before the other ones. 

At the same time Brodie and I focused on curation. We chose Chloe's suggested title because we felt that everyone's work was focused on political, surrounding and personal environments, and we as a year were questioning everyone's knowledge, interpretation and opinions. The three weeks passed in a blur. Brodie and I followed up on everyone's requirements, suggested ways of presentation, wrote a list of necessary equipment. Whilst Brodie counted up all the items, I made our first map of the Gallery layout:

Then it came down to helping everyone prepare. We painted plinths, moved the walls, tried to catch everyone to see where they were at with their work. We helped paint Mindi's table, move around some work, etc. Laura said that if the work wasn't up by Monday evening, it shouldn't be displayed, so we did our best to have everything ready. Brodie chased everyone up for their individual risk assessments, as well as did the Gallery one and I'm very thankful she did! In the meantime I focused on messaging people about getting their Artist Statements in, as I was designing a booklet on Illustrator. 

Seeing everyone's work go up was the most rewarding feeling. Despite all the running around and some confusion, everything was mostly finished for the lighting on Tuesday. Brodie and I decided to be the ones opening up on Wednesday, but when we got there for 9:30, the Gallery had already been opened for Applicant Day. We turned on all the monitors and projectors whilst also making On/Off Instructions; powered Jasper's PC, turned on all the speakers and added headphone extensions to the first monitors to have the front of the Gallery looking as neat as possible.

My biggest disappointment was the misprint of my pamphlets - as they got copied, the direction of them got a little warped, so when I took them to the electric guillotine, some parts got cropped. Sadly the university printers wouldn't let me print the work out without borders, so they all ended up looking a little bit off (even with the borders left on!!)

BUT OVERALL, this was a great and rewarding experience and I'm glad I did it because everyone's work looks amazing!

Here's our final edit of A Brief History of Personal Objects, as shown in Milieu?

chapter 3 - all done

Both Brodie and Emily did a really amazing job at editing their parts. Brodie's audio piece was really enjoyable, and Emily's editing saw our footage finally joined together to create the story we wanted to tell. It was amazing to see how our piece shaped itself when put together. I'm glad I got to work in such a lovely, kind group because we supported each other through all the stressful times.

I was present for the post-production process as well, and together with Emily we did some colour-grading on the final footage & added some of the text and times we based off the footage. The text was in relation to small details about the location or the object that one wouldn't necessarily consider when walking past. The time was in relation to the time of the day we would use the particular object, starting at the morning and proceeding onwards into the day.

Overall, I'm so happy with how our piece looks. With a little bit more time and better understanding of our equipment, it would've definitely reached its full potential, but I feel like what it is now is a really great Beta that could be built upon some other time. I can definitely imagine this piece being an immersive installation when it comes to the exhibition in Hockey gallery, so I hope to pursue the design of the space we want, no matter how much time it takes, and I really do hope it all works out.

My journey from point A to point B is somewhat cleared in my Learning Agreement and my Evaluation, which I've printed out, ready to submit along the final piece and Production Pack.

chapter 2 - object, camera, ready

With our Production Pack having been signed off, we collected our equipment on Friday and this was probably the first moment we realised that maybe we were a bit too enthusiastic about what we wanted to use. The equipment was heavy and we realised it would be very difficult to carry it around.

On top of that, further into the weekend we realised that perhaps we didn't really have a good enough understanding of the use of the glidecam. It definitely swallowed a few hours from our previous shooting schedule. In the end, we came to the conclusion we should use a tripod and worry about the slow movement when we got to post-production.

Despite all this, the actual filming went past in a blur. We had quite long days of walking around and I think by the end of it we were all exhausted, but some of the shots we got we were more than happy about. The walk I had done prior to this definitely helped us find all the right spots for shooting and saved loads of time, so that was definitely a benefit.

Here's my lucky shot of the project - I was filming a bottle of shampoo when a deer ran past, chased by two dogs. I can't believe that actually happened:

My other top footage I got was of a postman walking past our mirror but that's a treat for the actual final piece! Serendipity at its best!

During the production week, I also helped Brodie record some sounds at mine - such as the kettle boiling, keys rattling, footsteps, etc. I feel like Zoom F8 now looks way less scary than it did when we were inducted, and I'm glad I could watch Brodie use it. She also wrote the first draft of our dialogue's script because I felt stuck on my own which I then tweaked with her help, and we tweaked it one last time right before recording in the foley room. When it came to recording, I listened back to my voice and realised it wasn't what I wanted, so in the end the dialogue was spoken by Brodie and Kylan, which I felt like was a much better match.

I think that's all I have to say about the actual filming & recording process. It really was a blur, but I'm glad we didn't come across any other issues along the way. I did use my DSLR for all of my parts of the footage, which made it a little easier to get the visuals I wanted.. and I also put my camera very close to this lovely stream in the middle of Farnham Park.

Overall though, I may not have achieved the level of understanding of the GH4 that I wanted, but I think it was my mistake to assume that I could learn as I went along - I should've definitely done more tests prior to the actual shoot. Due to the fact we were running out of time, we had to sacrifice the glidecam and the GH4 to trade them for the good old tripod and our DSLRs because to get the shots we wanted, we needed to be more comfortable with our equipment.

chapter 1.2 - all the decisions

Phew! I feel like I haven't slept in weeks! Maps & Networks has been a journey. This link takes you into the adventure that was my idea merging into a project between myself, Emily, Brodie and Kylan who all had very lovely ideas of their own that were linked together by what we wanted to look into and achieve. It also has all of my previous blogs in relation to Maps & Networks.

Despite some setbacks, some uncertainties, a very overwhelming start - boy oh boy am I glad we joined into a group. Despite being very tiresome, it was definitely the least stressful project in a while and I enjoyed 99.9% of it.

The 0.1% was me taking on the role of the Student Producer. If there's one thing I've always been mortally scared of, it's producing. Don't get me wrong, I like knowing what's going on, scheduling things, researching and so on, but for some reason as soon as I opened the good old Production Pack, my mind went blank.

Thankfully Kylan, Emily and I did most of the paperwork together in the time frame of one evening in Caffe Nero (this included location notifications, three separate risk assessments, a project outline and treatment, equipment list and a shooting schedule/plan). We based our three risk assessments off our original risk assessment that Brodie & I made a few days prior to that.

I then had to tweak it a few times over the next two days before it was good enough to be printed off but I can honestly say that I faced my fear (named Risk Assessment) and honestly, it wasn't that bad! I definitely learned a thing or two. After weeks of uncertainty, it was good to know that our project was going to be made and we knew what we needed to do and when.

Here's a lovely photo of us from that evening (Alex represents Kylan in this photo):

Next Kylan and I went to see Julie, booked out a bunch of equipment (we got too excited & got equipment we weren't a hundred percent sure of... this came back to bite us) for the following weekend, as well as the studio, and then it was time to breathe for a little bit.

Camera gear:
GH4 with Prime Lens Kit, Steadicam, C Stand for balancing, Tripod

Audio gear:
Zoom F8 (headphones), Pearls x2 (with leads), Two mic tripods

Lighting gear for studio:
Arri lights (300?), Extension Lead

I used the free time during the other group's studio shoot to go location scouting (perks of being the only person of Group A in your Maps & Networks group). This was actually a really good idea as it definitely helped me picture what I wanted as a DOP a little better. I noted down some places I liked and some shots I could imagine in my head already (as we didn't have a 'storyboard').

One of the visual things that inspired me was a photo I did in the summer for the summer project:

And here's some photos from that lonely walk I did: